Paladins vs Evil Dead
by Little-bit-of-a-fixer-upper
Summary: Eleven years ago, evil forces caused changes in the life of Takashi Shirogane. Now, the evil has returned not just for Shiro, but for his friends as well. Perused by a mysterious woman and a no-nonsense detective, Shiro, Lance, Keith, Hunk and Pidge must find a way to put an end to the forces of the evil dead before it's too late! Rated M for Strong Language and Violence/ Gore.
1. Chapter 1: The One-Handed One

**Hey everyone! This is my first story for the Voltron: Legendary Defender fandom! AHHHHH and what better way to start it off than with a slapstick horror comedy AU filled with gore and violence? Ash vs. Evil Dead it is! Hope you enjoy!**

 **NOTE: You DO NOT have to have seen any films in the Evil Dead Trilogy or have watched the Starz Original Series, Ash vs. Evil Dead. This is an AU containing the character from the Neflix Animated Series, Voltron: Legendary Defender that follows the basic story of Ash vs. Evil Dead, Season One. Although the films and show are HIGHLY recommended because they're AWESOME!**

* * *

"Not just a good deal, but a Big Deal!"

He'd heard that phrase uttered day in and day out, regardless of the fact that he was just the stock boy. Granted, having only one hand made it a bit difficult, but overall, he managed.

What had happened eleven years ago still haunted him to this day, kept him up some nights, afraid to go to sleep. It had been worse before, but overall, he managed.

He'd been doing a lot of "managing" lately. Managing his one hand, managing his anxiety, managing the fact that a large portion of his normally jet black hair was now white and had been ever since the incident that had cost him his hand eleven years ago. Sometimes he liked to think it was all just a huge nightmare, but his hand and his hair told him otherwise. He hadn't sought help, because nobody would ever believe what he'd seen and what he'd gone through.

They would have to see it to believe it. And he didn't wish that on his worst enemy.

"Shirogane!"

He jumped, nearly sending the box of shampoo in his arms crashing to the floor as he looked over, seeing his manager approach. His manager was nice enough, tall, red-headed, a mustache that was too precise to not be styled with hair gel every morning and, overall, a rather eccentric personality.

"Feeling all right this morning, I take it?"

"Er… yes. I mean, no different than usual."

"Good. Then I hope you won't mind restocking the registers this evening during the graveyard shift. Nobody's ever around, so clearly, that's really the best time to do it."

He sighed, smiling a little. At least he didn't have to go home, alone. In the dark. With that book in his home…

"Yeah, sure. I-I'd love to."

"Good man! I can always count on you! I like that!"

"Me, too, Coran."

"Ah, that's _Mister_ Coran."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Just a joke, Shiro." Coran told him, patting his shoulder, "Just finish up with the shampoo and come on up front. Lance is working tonight so you can't say you won't have someone to talk to!"

"Yeah, really." He chuckled.

"Right, then. See you in a few tics!"

He smiled a bit as Coran left before going back and stocking the shampoo, feeling a bit better about the evening.

Takashi Shirogane was, in short, a damaged man, in more ways than one. One, there was his hand, no doubt about that. Second was his psyche. He'd seen some major shit and nobody would believe him if he told them. He didn't really blame them though… it all sounded a bit ludicrous. Like something out of an 80s indie horror flick or something… but, nonetheless, it had happened. And now, he was left with the thing that had caused it all. But still, it remained, locked up tight in a chest in his home, where it couldn't be discovered or hurt anyone.

"Ay, yo, Shiro!"

Shiro turned to see one of the cashiers, a young, 18 year old by the name of Lance McClain, leaning on the magazine racks beside his register, a grin on his face as he sipped a soda he'd gotten from the machine.

"Slow night, huh?"

"You can say that again. But, I'm glad. I like the slow nights. They're peaceful."

"Mm-hmm. Nobody crazy around, looking for that one crazy deal, no ladies claiming that their 'Credit card cannot be declined do you even know who I am?' or anything." Lance mused, "Still… it is kind of eerie though. All the quiet."

"Oh, don't tell me your ass is scared."

Lance and Shiro both looked over, both of them seeing the newest member to the team, a young, 17 year old girl, her light brown hair pulled up in a ponytail, large glasses on her face.

"Scared? Pfft, me? Whatever, Pidge. _You're_ the one who should be scared. We still haven't told you about the swamp thing that lives in back of the store in the dumpster that likes to feast on headstrong newbies."

"Very funny." Pidge told him as Shiro looked over at Lance, confused. Who was this girl?

"Lance?"

"Hmm?"

"Who's this?" Shiro asked, squinting a bit.

"Oh, her? That's just Pidge. Or, Katie, I guess you could call her. Newest cashier. Apparently a total genius. She's only 17 and graduated high school at 15. Already has an associate's degree. Can you believe that crap?"

"Whoa… how smart is she?" asked Shiro, in awe of this little, petite teenage girl.

"Pretty damn smart, Shiro. She'll probably get the Nobel Prize for breathing or something." Lance said.

"Huh…"

Shiro looked over at the girl again. Something about her just seemed… familiar, somehow. But how? He'd only just met her…

After a while of stocking the shelves, Shiro had arrived home at around a quarter to midnight, collapsing on his bed in his mobile home. Deciding that it might be better to live in than an actual house in the event that he might have to motor and leave at any second due to what had been caused recently, Shiro had decided on a nice, cozy, mobile home.

As he laid on the bed, trying to figure out why Pidge had been so familiar, he heard a knock at his door.

" _What the- who can that be at this time of night?!"_

He then got up and went over to the door, opening to find his elderly neighbor, Mr. Campbell at his door.

"Evenin', Shiro!"

"Mr. Campbell." Shiro said, "What a nice surprise… um… what are you doing up?"

"Oh, I just wanted to come by and warn ya. Seen some raccoons roamin' around these parts of the park, didn't want ya gettin' rabies or nothin'."

The gesture made Shiro chuckle a little as he offered a kind smile to the older man. "Well, I appreciate that, Mr. Campbell. Always looking out for me." he said, "Thank you. I'll keep an eye out. Now um... excuse me, please. I... hate to go but... I need to get my dinner started. Goodnight!"

Shiro then expected the man to reply as he began closing the door. He got a reply, just not one he'd been expecting...

" _We're coming for you, Shiro._ "

Shriro stopped dead in his tracks. That voice... it sounded... eerily familiar... and like something... not of this world.

He then peeked between the crack in the door and let out a soft, involuntary gasp of horror as he saw Mr. Campbell, his mouth twisted into a grotesque smile, his eyes completely whited out, his teeth now jagged and dirty as he chuckled the same, deep, unearthly chuckle.

" _We're here for you, Shiro. We'll get you for what you did._ "

Shiro then broke eye contact, the back of his neck beginning to drip with sweat as he suddenly felt sick... maybe he was seeing things?

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door to see Mr. Campbell now totally restored to normal, standing where he'd been before, smiling broadly.

"All right, man. Have a good night!" Shiro heard the older man call as he left. As the man walked back to his camper, Shiro kept watching him suspiciously. He half expected him to stare at him through the window, but, really, all he did was go and sit down, turning on his small television.

 _"_ _Get it together, Shiro... you're all right... it wasn't real..."_

Sighing, Shiro then closed the door. As the door closed, Shiro jumped, startled by a box that had fallen over, spilling it's contents on the floor.

"Oh, jeez..." Shiro muttered as he knelt down, picking up the assortment of books that had fallen out of the box. How could he have been so foolish? The evil was gone! And he knew it!

Then he picked it up...

The book. _The_ book. The book that had been bound in human flesh and inked in blood... the ancient book that came from ancient Sumerians... the book that had killed his friends and colleagues eleven years ago in the woods.

And then he remembered what had happened.

Shiro had been tipsy that night, bringing home a young man in his early twenties from the bar he attended. Not for anything sexual, but simply for some company due to the fact that Shiro had felt lonely that night.

Of course, Shiro had fallen asleep, leaving the man to find something he shouldn't have found... and led him to read what should not have been read.

He remembered hearing those four words... those words that meant utter doom...

" _Kunda... Estrata... Montose... Conda..."_

That night, Shiro had sent the man away, locking the book away in the cupboard. He'd hardly slept a wink.

Now, he stood in his mobile-home, the book clutched in his one real hand, resting on his wooden one as he held it tight, remembering the night eleven years ago where total evil had been awakened... costing the lives of all of his colleagues and friends at that cabin... including Matt's... his boyfriend at the time.

And now, here Shiro was, eleven years later. Alone, in his mobile home, totally vulnerable for it to catch up with him... and nobody to defend him except for himself... and some weapons he'd used before... eleven years ago. He'd be woefully out of practice...

And, at that moment, Shiro swore he heard a low, guttural growl from outside, sounding as if it were getting closer, at an alarming rate...

As the growls got closer, they began to form words... words that Shiro was all too familiar with before... words he'd heard uttered to him the night his friends had died... the night he's lost his hand... the night his life had been turned upside down...

" _Join Us..._ "

Shiro then realized what he needed to do, but not being very happy about it, uttered,

"Oh... Christ.

* * *

 **Uh Oh, Space Dad done screwed the pooch! Stay Tuned for Chapter Two!**


	2. Chapter 2: For Cereal

_I have a bad feeling about this place..._

That was her first thought as she got out of her unmarked police cruiser, her partner, Williams, by her side.

Allura Alfor did not scare easy, which is why she had been such a perfect candidate for detective. She was young, beautiful, and as strong as any man in her department, perhaps even stronger. Her long hair was pulled back into a ponytail, it's color being such a light shade of blonde that people could've sworn that it was white, ,as if someone had scared her to death.

But Allura didn't get scared, so that couldn't be possible.

"Williams, stick close to me. Keep your weapon ready." she told her partner, who mumbled something back that she didn't catch because she was already retreating towards the house they'd been called to. They'd received a call about twenty minutes ago from a man. A young man, by the sound of his voice. And he sounded terrified... which was why Allura had felt so shaken. Along with the eerie fog and grown up lawn that sprawled in front of the house like a large, brown and green shag carpet.

She then made her way up to the door, pressing it open, surprisingly. She motioned for Williams to follow her, taking her weapon from it's holster.

"Hello? Is there anyone there? Police!" she called out, but the only answer she received was the sound of her echo reverberating off the house's walls and back to her. She took a deep breath before looking over at the wall, blood splattered all over as if something had been sliced off. Nonetheless, she kept going.

And then she saw him.

There was a young man, about 25, tall and slender, standing in the center of the room by the window. From the sound he was making, it almost sounded like he was crying. She motioned for Williams to follow as she slowly approached the man.

"Sir? Are you all right? Are you the one who called us? I'm Detective Alfor, this is Detective Williams. We're going to get you out of here, all right?"

The man then whispered something that sounded like some sort of made-up language that she didn't catch. She furrowed her brow, staring at the man.

"Sir? I didn't catch that... are you all right?"

As she approached, she felt more and more intimidated. Why wouldn't he turn around to look at her? What had he said before?

She then reached for him as she approached and was suddenly shocked as she saw something she thought she'd never see.

The man's head spun, full 180 degrees and looked at her, sneering, his teeth yellowed and rotten, his eyes completely whited out, causing Allura to gasp in horror, recoiling.

"I said... _I'LL RIP YOUR FUCKING SOUL OUT, BITCH!_ "

Suddenly, Allura felt a harsh, ramming pain in her chest as she found herself flying across the room, grunting as she collided with a wall, looking over at the man, whose body had now spun around, a harsh, demonic sounding laugh escaping his throat as he began to approach her.

"Alfor!" she heard Williams scream, her partner firing his weapon at the man, blood spraying from the wounds.

" _Why hasn't he fallen down, yet?!_ " she thought. Before she could pull her gun, she watched as the man grabbed Williams, hauling him up like he were merely a sack of potatoes and whirling him around like an athlete participating in the hammerthrow at the Olympics.

"Williams!" she cried out. But it was too late...

The man cackled his horrible laugh and then let go of her partner, sending his body flying up towards the ceiling and into the whirring ceiling fan, the blades now spinning faster, slicing Williams' body to pieces, his arms, legs, and torso flying in every direction, his head hurling towards her, his eyes still wide form shock as his severed head landed in front of her, his blood showering the room. As Williams' head blinked for the final time, Allura screamed, backing away as she then got up, cocking her gun as the man laughed his loud, ominous laugh again.

" _Not a_ _ **fan**_ _, I see._ " the man snarled, his rotten, yellow teeth making up his terrifying grin as he started towards Allura.

" _Shit! You have no choice! Do it!_ " her mind screamed as the man approached, prepared to strike when Allura fired her weapon at his face, his head exploding into a mess of blood, skull and brain matter as he began to attack, soaking Allura's brilliant, nearly white hair with blood, causing her to squint her eyes closed.

Slowly, she opened her eyes again, looking down at the now headless corpse that littered the floor, breathing deeply as she suddenly heard a whispering... as if something was retreating... she only heard what it said for a moment, before it disappeared entirely.

At least, she could've sword that she heard utter,

" _JOIN US._ "

"Uh... Shiro? You okay?"

"No, he's not okay. He looks like death warmed over in a cocoon of tinfoil. Baked potato style."

"Dude, don't mention potatoes. I'm starved."

"Breakfast was an hour ago for you!"

"So?!"

Shiro then snapped out his daze, looking at both of the young men that had been asking about him.

"Oh... I'm fine, guys. Just... had some trouble sleeping is all." he insisted. True, he hadn't slept barely at all since he'd had that encounter with Mr. Campbell last night. It had just... unnerved him so much...

"Hmm. Well, I mean... sorry to hear that, man." Lance told him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Why don't you ask Coran if you can take the rest of the day off? I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Yeah, since you're like... always on time for everything. And have the most perfect attendance next to me."

"Hunk, you show up every day because of the food you work with. Admit it."

"So what if I do?! Food is an art form!"

Shiro looked over at Lance's longtime best friend, Hunk Garrett, a rather large, chubby boy who managed the deli at Big Deals. If anyone was passionate about their job, it was Hunk. Funnily enough, Shiro had actually found that Hunk had been a pretty handy guy as well, often fixing the stoves and microwaves in the store. One time he'd even fixed a few cogs in the deli cooler, make it work even better than before.

"Yeah, yeah. Tell that to your whole castle of bologna."

"You leave Sandwich Castle out of this, Lance!"

Lance then chuckled, patting Hunk's shoulder. Shiro was always so impressed by the sheer difference in size between the two: Lance being more slender and lanky, Hunk being the larger, more sturdily built one. For a guy that was built like a chunky linebacker, Hunk looked like he was ready to fall down more than often, but Shiro guessed that was due to his overall paranoid nature. He always seemed to striving for utter perfection, especially in food.

"Relax, man. No hard feelings." Lance assured his friend, "I love your bologna castle."

"Yeah, I figured you did."

"How could I not?"

As Shiro watched the boys talk, he laughed a little, deciding not to let a little lack of sleep ruin his day.

"Hey, guys, I'm gonna go get the cereal boxes from the back, okay? Be right back."

"Kay!" he heard them both say in unison before going back to talk. Shiro then made his way to the back and over to the pallets of Count Chocula, Boo Berry and FrankenBerry that they had recently gotten in for the Halloween season. As he went through the module, he saw that one box of Count Chocula was missing.

" _That's weird..._ " he thought as he looked behind the pallets, thinking it might have fallen behind one. As he looked, he heard a rustling sound behind him, making him turn suddenly, looking behind him.

"Um... Lance? That you?" he called, but received no answer. "Come on, kid. You know how I feel about that. Cut it out, okay?"

Again, no answer.

Shiro then shrugged, going back to the pallet of cereal, deciding that he was hearing things.

But he'd been wrong.

As he turned around, he was greeted by the smiling face of the cereal mascot, Count Chocula, except for now, the face had morphed into something worse... almost demonic in nature, it's eyes white and it's fangs dripping with blood as the mascot's arms extended out of the box, a loud, shrill cackle ringing out as the hands closed around Shiro's neck, throwing him to the ground.

" _What the hell?!_ "

As he hit the ground, Shiro then turned to see the cereal box, _moving on it's own,_ the arms and hands of Count Chocula moving him towards him, his fangs out as the cereal box screamed, sinking it's fangs into Shiro's shoulder, causing him to let out a wail of pain.

" _YOUR FILTHY HUMAN SOUL TASTES LIKE CHOCOLATE, MOTHERFUCKER!_ " the box growled in a rather bad Bela Lugosi impression as it bit into Shiro again.

"NO! GET OFF ME, GODDAMMIT!" Shiro shouted at the box, refusing to let an animated _cereal box_ kill him! He flung the box across the stock room, the box screaming as it sailed into the floor, dazed, allowing Shiro to get up and move away, looking for something to get rid of it with.

As Shiro had gotten up, the box chuckled again, running at him again, screaming as it's fangs bared. Shiro turned, expecting another attack... but it never came. Instead he heard something that sounded a lot like a large,

 _THWACK!_

With that, the cereal box fell to the ground, blood gushing from it's lips as it got up, preparing to strike again.

" _I'LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL! SWALLOW YOUR SOUL! SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!_ " it yelped repeatedly as, suddenly, it was crushed by the blow of a large shovel, blood and small innards spraying from the body.

Shiro could hardly believe what happened. Who... who had saved him? Who had done this?

He then looked up, seeing the two people he last expected to see, the smaller of the two holding a large, blood stained shovel, the two of them sprayed with cereal box blood.

Lance and Hunk.

"What-"

"The-"

"FUCK?!"

Shiro looked up at the two, who seemed to be more confused than scared. And hell, they had every right to be. They'd just smashed a cereal box into a pile of blood and organs. _That_ was something you didn't see every day.

"So… I'll bet you boys have quite a bit of questions for me."

Shiro had managed to get up from his position on the storeroom floor, dusting himself off a bit as he looked over at the blood-stained Hunk and Lance, Lance still holding the bloody shovel in his hand, both boys paler than he'd ever seen, their darker complexions now whiter than ever.

"That box of cereal… was… ALIVE?!" Hunk yelped, grabbing onto Lance's shoulder.

"Oh… dude, I think I'm a Boo Berry person now…" Lance told him, looking down at the large splat of blood, organs and chocolate cereal pieces that had been the box of Count Chocula, "Oh shit… does this make me a _cereal_ killer?"

Both boys then looked form the box and over at Shiro, Lance's eyes shifting to the shovel, a grimace crossing his face as he tossed it away as if it were a sweaty piece of laundry.

"Um… Shiro? You seem… awfully calm about this." Hunk pointed out, "How can you-"

"How can you just stand there when a box of friggin' cereal just tried to eat you?!" Lance bellowed out.

Shiro shrugged as he looked down at the splatter of the cereal box. It was something new, yes, but nothing crazier then what he'd seen before.

"Same shit, different day, boys. Just in a different form this time." Shiro said, sighing. "Okay… here's the deal, guys. You wanna hear a story? About how I got this hand?" asked Shiro, holding up his right, wooden hand.

"I thought it got crushed by a tire!" Hunk told him.

"No, I heard it was a food processor!" Lance protested.

"No, guys… it wasn't any of those things." Shiro assure them, "But… those things are way more believable then what I'm about to tell you. But… bear with me, okay?"

"So it _was_ a garbage disposal!" Lance butted in, "I knew it!"

" _Lance!_ "

"Okay." Said Lance with a sigh as Shiro took a seat on one of the pallets, the two younger boys sitting across from him, huddling close to one another as he began to tell his story,

"It was about… eleven years ago that it happened," Shiro began, "I'd just turned 21 and decided to go on a trip to a secluded cabin with my colleagues. One of my old professors had recently made the discovery while exploring Egypt. He discovered that he'd stumbled upon a book called the _Naturon Demonto_ or, as it's more commonly known, the _Necronomicon Ex-Mortis_ , which, when roughly translated, means 'Book of the Dead'."

"Oh man… don't like where this is going." Hunk remarked, holding onto Lance, who gave his forearm a reassuring pat as Shiro continued his story.

"The _Necronomicon_ itself is bound in human flesh and inked in blood and believed to have been written by ancient Sumerians. The book's text included passages that ranged from ancient Sumerian burial rights, funerary incantations and various passages that could resurrect demons from another world, which, many believed to be hell."

"My professor made the grave mistake to read aloud from this book, which awakened something in the woods… something not of this world. Something… evil."

Hunk then held tighter to Lance, Lance beginning to feel his friend's palms sweat. He wasn't going to lie… he actually felt a bit freaked out as well.

"Whatever it was, it came for us all… and it took my friends from me, including my boyfriend at the time, Matt. Made him into something-"

"Whoa-ho-ho-ho! Hold on a sec! Pump the brakes, man! Stop this wagon train, muchacho!" Lance interrupted, "So… you're _gay_?"

"Well, not exactly." Shiro said, "I'm a pansexual if you want to get technical."

"Wait…. Like… what?!" Lance asked, shocked, "Dude, I would've never guessed that!"

"Why?" asked Shiro, his tone curious.

"Because you're just like… well… I mean, you… you look like… _that_!" Lance sputtered, gesturing to Shiro's impressive physical prowess. "I mean, you're build like friggin' Hercules or something! And you just seem so brawny is all!"

"What, brawny guys can't be pan?" Shiro asked.

"Well, I mean, yeah, they can! People can be anything they want!" Lance said, "It's just um… well, surprising is all."

"Hey, I mean, you're bi, Lance." Hunk put in.

"Dude! What the hell?!"

"What? What's the problem?" asked Hunk, "It's not like I told Shiro you like to come to the back and check out his 'round, wonderfully plump, juicy booty' in his work pants as he puts away the stock!"

The room was then dead quiet, Lance's face now red as a radish, his eye twitching slightly.

"Oh… um… heh heh… whoops." Hunk mumbled nervously, "Um… just forget I said that."

"Hunk, the next time an evil box of cereal comes to life, remind me to let it eat your face off." Lance said in a stiff voice, turning around to face Shiro, who looked totally shocked as Lance smoothed out his shirt, taking a seat next to Hunk on the pallets again and taking a deep breath.

"Okay… go on." He said in an expectant tone, his face still bright red.

"Um… all right." Shiro mumbled, not sure if he should take the butt remark as a compliment or not, a blush dusting his cheeks as he continued on,

"So… this evil came… made Matt into something not of this world… something that wanted me dead. So… I… had to kill him." Shiro admitted sorrowfully, "And… then it came for me."

Hunk and Lance both tensed at hearing this, afraid that Shiro might become some winged demon and eat them alive.

"It… got into my hand and made it go bad. So… I… sliced it off at the wrist with a chainsaw."

Hunk and Lance both cringed at hearing that, looking down at Shiro's wooden hand in astonishment.

"I managed to fight off the evil, keeping it at bay, locked away inside the book, which I've kept with me all these years. Locked up and out of harm's way. That is… until recently."

Lance and Hunk inched forward, immediately invested.

"I… brought a guy home from the bar one night. Nothing sexual or anything, just… wanted some company. I ended up falling asleep and woke up to find him reading the book… out loud."

"Oh….. shit." Lance said.

"So… I kicked him out. Haven't seen him since. And… it looks like that evil's back to its old tricks again. Judging by the possessed cereal box."

"So… like… what are you gonna do now?" Hunk asked.

"Are you gonna fight the evil? Please say you're gonna fight the evil." Lance added hopefully. Shiro then sighed, scratching at the back of his neck.

"Well… I mean… I guess I'll have to."

"Awesome! That is so boss!" Lance cried, getting up from his spot, "And we're gonna help you!"

"Wait, WHAT?!" sputtered Hunk and Shiro in unison.

"Well, I mean, think about it! We just smashed apart a _possessed box of breakfast cereal_! We're totally in this together with you!"

"Oh no. No, no, no. No way, no day, Lance!" Shiro told him, "This thing is pure, concentrated evil! It will kill you and not think twice!"

"Um, yeah! Obvie! But that's why we get to it first! I mean, hey, we just get our hands on some weapons and wham, bam, thank you, ma'am! Take the fight to the evil! Show that bitch whose boss! And hey, you can't do this on your own, Shiro! Strength in numbers, man! All for one and one for all that three musketeers shit! Come on, man! You need some help with this!"

"Forget it, Lance. I'm not going to put you kids in danger by letting you help me with this. I've defeated it once, I can defeat it again." Shiro told him firmly.

"But what would've happened to you had Hunk and I not been here? With the cereal box? Hmm?" Lance asked, "Face it, Shiro. You would have been breakfast for the breakfast! Right, Hunk? Come on, back me up!"

Hunk shrugged shyly, not really wanting to go into this whole endeavor… but… Lance was right…

"As… much as I hate to admit… Lance… is… right, Shiro." Hunk said quietly.

"There! You see?!" Lance said, wrapping an arm around Hunk. "Come on, Shiro!"

Shiro thought for a moment, weighing his options. True, he would admit, some help would be nice… it really was a chore defeating all that evil on his own the last time… in fact, it nearly killed him multiple times… and he didn't want to die just yet. Extra hands meant extra help for him…

He then looked at the boys, Lance having a bright, expectant look on his face and Hunk glancing down towards the ground, obviously reluctant.

"…fine." Shiro mumbled, "But if any of you get hurt, don't say I didn't warn you!"

"Yes!" Lance whooped, "Oh hell yeah! We're gonna Buffy this shit up, man! Cracking evil right over its face!"

"I just hope it doesn't eat our faces off, first…" mumbled Hunk.

"Oh come on, Hunk! Be positive! It's gonna be awesome! I mean, we're like legit monster hunters, man!"

"Ah, I wouldn't say that just yet." Shiro told them, "You killed one monster. We're going up against more, most likely. And I take it you guys don't-"

"I know how to use a gun." Lance proclaimed, causing Shiro to give him a look of shock.

"What?"

"Mm-hmm."

" _You_ know how to fire a gun?"

"Been doing it for years. With my grandpop."

Shiro then looked over at Hunk for reassurance. Hunk sighed and looked over at Lance.

"It's true… and he's a damn good shot, too…"

"Mm-hmm, you bet I am. Regular Space Cowboy." Lance said proudly. Shiro raised an eyebrow.

"'Space' cowboy?"

"You betcha."

"Okay… the 'cowboy' part I get, but why 'space'?"

"Cause everything's cooler in space, and I'm the coolest of the cool, of course!"

"Right…"


	3. Chapter 3: Storm Brewing

After trying, unsuccessfully, to scrape up the bloody goo that was what was left of the possessed cereal box, Hunk, Lance and Shiro all returned to work, acting as though nothing happened. However, Pidge was doubtful. She'd come in as the three of them were "on break" and observed that all three of them emerged from the back, looking rather suspicious.

Maybe it was due to her nosiness… or her paranoia. She couldn't help it! She'd always been nosy, growing up. She'd gotten into trouble for trespassing on school grounds multiple times when she's snuck into her brother's old campus, looking for any information that might explain where he'd disappeared to, along with her father. She'd taken a bit of therapy, being told to "Find a job to keep her mind busy", which she'd done. Only trouble was, her mind had a hard time concentrating on something as tedious as working in a department store. But something told her that it was about to get a whole lot less tedious…

"And where have you boys been?" she called over, all three of them jumping as if they'd seen a spider appear right in front of them.

"Er… on break!" Lance said quickly.

"Right! Just grabbed something in the breakroom!" Hunk added as Shiro stood behind them, nervously scratching at the back of his neck. Pidge raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?" she asked, "All _three_ of you?"

"Oh, undoubtedly!" Lance told her, nodding.

"Yeah! Cause we had to save Shiro from the- oof!" said Hunk as he felt Lance's sharp elbow in his gut.

"Pardon me, boys? From the _what_?" Pidge asked teasingly.

"From the… sheer sweetness of my chocolate chip cookies!" Hunk said suddenly, "I… brought some from home that I made! Right guys?"

"Oh, yeah! Chocolate chip! My facvorite!" Lance agreed.

"Mm-hmm." chimed in Shiro with an innocent smile. Pidge smirked at them then before Lance looked out of the transparent automatic doors and frowned a little.

"Oh boy, look whose back. Little 80s angry child himself." He mused as a boy about his age walked inside, his face buried deep in his phone, his black hair spilling down around his shoulders. "Find another ghost, Keith?"

The boy didn't respond. All he did was hold up a finger, his hands covered by fingerless gloves. Lance chuckled.

"I'm guessing that's a yes."

"According to this, there's a bunch of weird, supernatural activity here." Keith said, following a sort of trail his phone as he made his way up to Shiro, sort of scanning him with his phone. He then looked up at the man, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Oh. Um… sorry." He told Shiro, "It's just that… it says that _you're_ the source of activity around here."

Lance and Hunk looked nervously at each other, then at Shiro, who was red in the face.

"Um… me? No… no that can't be!" he laughed, "I'm just the stock boy here."

"Yeah! He's just the stock boy, Keef!" Lance agreed, turning his attention to Shiro, "You'll have to forgive Keith, Shiro. He's got a thing for ghosts, myths and the occult."

"Hey, I don't need you talking for me, _cashier_."

"Um, _employed_ cashier! Unlike _some_ people!" Lance argued.

"Don't worry, they're always like this." Hunk whispered to Shiro, "Best frenemies."

"Yeah, sure." Keith said, crossing over to Pidge. "Pidge sides with me on these things. Don't you, Pidge?"

"Gotta say, he's right." Pidge agreed, peering out from above her glasses, you guys are acting pretty mondo weird."

"We are not acting weird!" all three of them said at once.

As Lance, Shiro and Hunk spoke, suddenly, there was a tremor beneath their feet, the store's lights blinking.

"Whoa, shit!" Lance cried, "You guys feel that?!"

"Forget feeling it! Look!" shouted Hunk. Just like that, all five of them crowded over to the door, looking outside. The sky had gone from blue to a dark purple, the wind now gushing, sending trash and debris flying through the parking lot.

"Keith, what did you do?!" Lance asked.

"Shut it, Lance! I didn't do this!"

As the storm raged outside, the group was then interrupted by a panicked shout from Coran, who came running out of the office, holding a briefcase.

"Nobody panic! NOBODY PANIC! Initiate emergency protocol twelve! Everyone remain calm!" he shouted, "We're going to stay in the store, keep the customers here until this whole thing blows over!"

Shiro then thought for a moment… hearing the growling off in the distance again… and he then knew what he had to do.

He split off from the group, running out the back, much to the dismay of the people around him.

"Shiro! Come back!" Coran shouted after him, but Shiro kept running. He ran until he was out of the store, thankful that the trailer park in which his mobile home was parked at was right behind his place of work. He knew what was causing this… he knew damn well…

And he wasn't about to let it hurt anyone else. Not now… not ever.

He'd let it kill him if he had to.

As he pressed on, he ignored the shouts of Mr. Campbell from next door, bursting into his mobile home and looking over, seeing the book on the table, not where he'd put it, a flash of lightning lighting up the book's eerie, face-like cover.

"Hey, you. Been a while."

"I'm going after him!"

"No way, Lance! As your manager, I forbid it! Who knows?! You could die in this weather!"

"I'm going with him!"

At Big Deals, everyone was in disarray. The customers were on the verge of panicking, as was Coran, as Lance and Hunk insisted on going after Shiro.

"Coran! If he can make it, so can we!" Lance argued, "I mean, do you really think that-"

And, suddenly, the tremors stopped. The clouds lifted, the growling stopping as the sun began to come out again, everyone exchanged the same, confused look with one another.

"Well, weather's good. Off I go." Lance said, hurrying off towards the door, Hunk chugging along after him.

"Me, too! I'll make up the hours, Coran!"

Coran was left in a stunned silence, turning to Pidge, "Well, Katie, looks like you-"

But Pidge was gone, as was Keith.

"Are we sure about this, Lance?"

"Of course not! But come on! We promised to help!"

Lance then got into his old, battered (or well-loved) Corolla, igniting the engine and riding over to the trailer park.

"How do you know where he lives?" Hunk asked, impressed.

"Easy. Snooped in on his work info. Sometimes ya gotta know these things." Lance said, pulling up at Shiro's large mobile home and looking over at Hunk, grabbing a tire iron from the back.

"Okay, big guy. You ready?"

"No!"

"Great, let's get in there!"

As Shiro stood in his kitchenette, looking down at the _Necronomicon_ , he then heard a knock at his door, making him gasp.

 _"_ _Shit… they've come for me already?!"_

As he heard the knock, he quickly went into the bedroom and fished out something he hadn't used in a while from under the bed.

A double-barrel shotgun.

Shiro then took out the weapon, loading the rounds in the barrel before going to the door, throwing it open an aiming at whatever was out there.

"WHOA! WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!"

"SHIT! HE'S GONNA SHOOT US, MAN!"

Shiro then looked down, seeing Lance and Hunk outside, both holding onto each other, cowering in fear under the barrel of his gun.

"Lance! Hunk!" he cried, putting the weapon on the counter. "What're you doing here?! I could've shot you!"

"Yeah, no shit!" Lance told him, making his way inside, Hunk following behind him, "Why do you even _have_ that thing anyway?!"

"For… emergencies." Shiro said, "A-and who said you could come in?! I don't remember inviting you."

"Yeah, sorry about that but you're gonna have to deal with it, man!" Lance said, "Cause we're here to help you stop the evil! Which I'm guessing is what made that weirdo storm outside a few minutes ago?"

"…you'd be right." Shiro grumbled.

"Thought so." Said Lance, his eyes finding the _Necronomicon_ , causing him to grimace, "Ew, gross! Is _this_ the book?!" he asked, lifting it up.

"Agh! Put that down!" commanded Shiro, snatching the book away from him and placing it on the counter beside the gun, "That's very dangerous stuff!"

"Well yeah, but I didn't _read_ it!" Lance protested, "What harm could it do just looking inside?"

"Er, Lance… you sure you really _wanna_ look inside?" Hunk asked nervously, "I mean… it's written in blood so… that's probably really unsanitary."

"A book that can release spirits of the netherworld and beyond and you're worried about how _sanitary_ it is?"

"Well it could have some weirdo pathogen in it!"

Just then, another knock.

Before anyone could answer, Pidge opened the door and stepped inside, followed by Keith.

"Can we come in? Whoops, already here." She mused.

"Oh what the fuck?! Come on, get out of here!" Lance whined, "this happens to be a _private_ matter, Katherine."

"It's _Katie,_ noodle boy. Either Katie, Pidge, or _ma'am_ to you."

"All right, time out!" Shiro called over the group, looking at Keith and Pidge. "How'd you two even know where I lived?!"

"Oh, easy. Just followed Lance is all." Keith said, "He's not the best sleuth in the world."

"I'll show _you_ a sleuth, mullet boy!"

Shiro rolled his eyes, groaning, "Why are you even here?!"

"You three boys are up to something, and this proves it." Pidge pointed out, "And Keith and I want in."

"No. Absolutely not! Out of the question!" Shiro said, "Get out, now! The both of you! Or no… all of you! Out! Out, out, out!"

He then tried to corral them out, which resulted in quite a bit of arguing and pushing when, suddenly, another knock was heard at the door.

All five of them stopped dead in their tracks.

"Oh for Christ's sake…" Shiro sighed, pushing past the kids and going to the door and opening it. "Look, I'm in the middle of something and I really don't need-"

Suddenly, his sentence was cut off as the hand of Mr. Campbell closed tightly around his throat, the man's eyes completely white, and his skin more leathery and dry now as he grinned at Shiro. In the back, Hunk yelped, running off and taking cover in Shiro's bedroom.

"Holy shit!" yelled Lance.

"What the fucking quiznak?!" Keith threw in.

"Shiro!" cried Pidge as Mr. Campbell brought Shiro in closer.

" _We found you, Shiro!_ "


	4. Chapter 4: What You Do With a Chainsaw

His white eyes searing with evil, the deadite-possessed Mr. Campbell snarled, chucking Shiro away and into the opposite wall of the mobile home, sending him crashing to the ground in a rumpled heap as he continued inside. As he came in, Pidge narrowed her eyes, overcome with rage.

Grabbing for the closest thing, she managed to snatch up an iron skillet from the counter, cracking the old man over the face with it with all her might.

"Leave him alone, you motherfucker!"

As she hit him, his body made a sickening crack sound, sending the man flying into a rage as he grabbed the skillet from her before shoving Pidge backwards and into the kitchenette walls.

"Pidge!" cried Keith, who maneuvered his way around the man, grabbing a large kitchen knife and swinging wildly at him, managing to get a good cut in before the man let out a loud, inhuman wail of pain before showing Keith's head against the wall, knocking him dazed.

"Oh, fuck this!" Lance snapped, grabbing the shotgun off the counter, "Why didn't you dumbasses use the friggin' _gun_?!"

He then aimed the gun at the man, point blank, preparing to fire. "Don't think you're human anymore so this should be justified I think… now, say hello to my little-!"

BAM!

Lance fired the gun, but the kick sent him sailing backwards and into the wall, full force, causing him to fall on the ground in a daze.

"Hell of a kick…" he muttered woozily, his eyes going wide as he saw the old man coming towards him, grinning, his whited out eyes burning savagely as his fingernails began to extend into long, sharp points, high pitched giggling escaping his throat.

"Guys! Look at this! I found a chainsaw!"

Everyone looked over at Hunk, who had emerged from Shiro's bedroom, holding a large, red chainsaw.

"Hunk...? Buddy, what the fuck..." Lance mumbled.

"We can use this to defeat the- GAHHHH!"

As he spoke, the old man charged at him, smashing Hunk against the wall and sending the chainsaw clattering to the floor.

" _Big guy like you oughta have a huge, sweet soul, huh fat boy?!_ " the old man snarled, cackling in Hunk's face, Hunk closing his eyes and whimpering in fear.

"Ugh... dude, you've got like... the worst breath! Please... please get away! Please d-don't hurt me! I'm too young!"

Just like that, the old man slapped a dry, cracked hand over Hunk's mouth, leaving Hunk's whimpers and pleas muffled.

" _Hush now, be a good little fat boy and gimmie that sweet, sweet soul of yours!_ " the old man snarled again, cackling wildly.

As the old man attacked Hunk, Shiro and Lance both stirred, Shiro eventually rubbing his head and getting up, taking notice of Hunk.

"Oh shit." he muttered, looking down at his wooden hand.

" _Well, now's a good of a time as any other._ " he thought, unscrewing the hand and tossing it on the counter, observing Lance, who was watching him in a daze.

"Lance! Toss me that!" he called over, gesturing to the chainsaw, hoping Lance would take the hint. Thankfully, after looking a bit confused, Lance lurched forward, grabbing the chainsaw by the handle and tossing it to Shiro.

As the chainsaw sailed towards him, Shiro extended out his right arm, the stump extending closer and closer to the approaching chainsaw, aiming for a cavity that had been placed... almost like a mount.

And just like that, Shiro's stumped arm met the chainsaw, the cavity fitting perfectly over his forearm as he twisted it into place, effectively replacing his wooden hand with a weapon he could use to fight off this monster. He gave a few yanks of the pull cord, revving the chainsaw to life as the old man held Hunk against the wall, his hand still clamped over his mouth, preparing to kill.

"Hey, Grandpa!" Shiro called out, the old man's head snapping around to him, his teeth bared. "Let's end this."

Earning a high shriek from the old man, Shiro readied his chainsaw, the old man letting go of Hunk and rushing towards him.

As the old man ran towards him, Shiro raised his chainsaw arm, swinging it at just the right time as the man came flying at him, the blade slicing through the man's neck, spraying blood all over the walls as his had separated from his body in a spiraling motion, covering Shiro, Keith, Pidge, Lance and Hunk in the man's blood, the body and head thudding against the floor. Shiro then looked down, swinging his blood-stained white bangs out of his face as he retrieved the gun, the old man's head beginning to speak again, this time in a more shrill tone.

" _Hey! You! I'll swallow your soul! Swallow your soul! Swallow your soul!_ " the man cried before Shiro pressed the twin barrels of the shotgun into the man's mouth, silencing him.

"How 'bout you swallow this?"

Just like that, he pulled the trigger, the old man's head exploding on the ground into an even bigger splat of blood, leaving the four kids in the room utterly shocked and even horrified. Shiro then powered down his chainsaw as he turned around and looked at them, raising an eyebrow.

"I won."

"You just chopped that guy's head off…" Lance observed.

"Yeah."

"And… then you blew it up. With… a shotgun."

"Uh-huh."

Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Keith all gaped at Shiro in amazement. Half an hour ago he was just some stock boy… now he was a buff, shotgun toting badass with a chainsaw hand who had just decapitated his zombified neighbor.

"Um… Sh-Shiro?"

"Yeah, Hunk?" Shiro asked, wiping the blood from his face with his shirt tail.

"What… what was that thing?" Hunk asked, nodding to the headless corpse of the old man that lay bleeding on the floor. Shiro looked down at the corpse, stooping down and propping it up against the cabinets.

"That, Hunk, was called a deadite." Shiro explained, "A living, human host that had become possessed by the evil of the _Necronomicon_."

"Could you have saved him?" Lance asked, kicking at the old man's leg as Pidge leaned over and smacked him on the arm to get him to stop.

"Sadly, no." said Shiro, "Once the evil takes you… there's no going back. It'll try and make others _think_ you're fine, but really, your mind is gone, clouded forever by the evil. Until, someone has to eventually do the unthinkable."

"Is that what happened to your friends?" asked Lance. Shiro then looked a bit sad, remorseful, even.

"Yes, Lance… that is what happened."

"Shit…" Pidge added. Shiro looked over at her, her glasses having fell off in the struggle. As she put her glasses back on fixing her hair, a memory suddenly hit Shiro like a ton of bricks, nearly flooring him.

For a moment he was back in the cabin… with Matt, his boyfriend at the time. Matt had been a genius… always running circles around everyone in the academic world…

"So, Matt, how'd the rest of your family feel about you coming up here for the next few days?" Shiro remembered asking.

"Well, my mom had been totally fine with it, but Katie? She begged me to not to come up here. She wanted me to stay home and teach her algebra."

"Whoa, algebra?! How old _is_ she?!"

"Six. And she can already multiply and divide better than half of the fifth graders at her elementary school. She's gonna go far, man…"

And, just like that, Shiro came back, stumbling back against the wall as he looked over at Pidge, who had just finished putting her hair up.

"Shiro? You okay?" she called over.

"Y-yeah…" Shiro lied. He couldn't tell her about Matt… it would crush her… not to mention, crush him. After all, he'd chopped his head clean off and buried him out in the woods… if he hadn't the evil would've just kept bringing him back… it killed him to leave him there, but Shiro had known what he had to do…

"All right, great. Check this out, Shiro."

He then jumped as Lance appeared beside him, playing a video on his phone. Shiro saw the deadite Mr. Campbell on the video and watched as he attacked. Eventually, he watched as Lance reached out and tossed him the chainsaw, which he used to slice off the monster's head, the video going black soon after.

"Tell me that's not an epic shot!" Lance proclaimed, "Holy shit, man! Holy shit!"

"Why'd you tape it, Lance?" Keith asked, rubbing the back of his head, grimacing as he picked out bloody brain matter from his long locks.

"Um, because if I didn't, nobody would believe us! Duh! And, if I didn't give my parents some sort of concrete proof that these monsters exist, they'd never let me go and fight them off with Shiro!"

"Wait, what?!" Shiro asked, "No way, Lance! You aren't going to-"

"Oh relax, Cruella DeVil, it's not forever! Just until you put the evil back in the book and ditch it! Then we can come back here, I can go to college and we can work back at Big Deals together, live totally normal lives like nothing ever happened."

"I-I don't know, Lance…" Hunk began.

"Oh you _never_ know!" Lance said, "Keith? Pidge?"

Keith thought for a moment, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he pondered the thought.

"Well, I mean… I don't have anything else better to do. I say go for it." Keith said, "Pidge?"

Pidge cast her eyes down at the headless corpse of the old man that had just attacked them, taking off her glasses and rubbing them with her shirt tail in an attempt to get the blood off of them.

"We get to off these things that make people into monsters?" she asked. Shiro sighed and nodded.

"Yes, Pidge. That's what it would be like."

Pidge then placed her glasses back on and grinned at them all, shrugging a little.

"Well, all you boys are gonna need at least one girl on this team anyway so, count me in."

Shiro sighed, looking over at Hunk, who still looked rather freaked out and pale over the whole thing.

"How about you, Hunk? You know, you could say no."

Hunk's large, brown eyes shifted for a moment before he eventually made his decision:

"Well… somebody's going to have to make sure Lance doesn't hurt himself… so, I guess I'm in." he said in a small voice.

"Yes! Look at us! A team! All five of us!" Lance cheered happily, slinging an arm around Hunk and Keith, "We've gotta think of a name!"

"Why is that?" asked Keith, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Well, all the best teams have names! Duh!" said Lance, looking around for something he could use to stem a name off of.

"Er… okay, let me see…" he muttered, seeing a name printed on Shiro's mobile home above the door. "Hmm… 'Voltron'. What's that?"

"Just… what I call this place." Shiro said as he began to clean up the body of the old man, "Just a fun name I came up with to describe my home I suppose."

"Well… that's perfect! 'Team Voltron: Defenders of… the living'?"

"Eh, I think just 'Team Voltron' is good." Hunk shrugged.

"All right, there we go! Team Voltron!"

As all this was happening, Pidge's phone vibrated. She'd gotten a million texts since this all began, all from her worried mother, ranging from "'Katie, where are you?! Are you still at work?! Bad storm coming! Stay there!'" to "'Storm looks like it has passed. Call me when you get a second.'"

But it was the last two messages that had made Pidge uncomfortable. As she looked at the screen, she saw that they were picture messages. One of them read:

"KATIE! PLEASE COME HOME AS SOON AS YOU GET THIS! YOUR FATHER IS HOME! HE'S ALIVE! CALL ME!"

Pidge nearly dropped her phone as she looked at the picture her mother had sent. It was a selfie of her… with her father. Her father that had been thought to be dead for eleven years. The same father who had disappeared with Matt when she was only six… the father she thought she'd never see again.

"Guys! Guys! Shut up a second!" she called over the boys in the room, showing her phone to all of them. "Look!"

Hunk squinted and looked down at the phone, tilting his head to the side.

"What? It's your mom and some guy. Is she dating someone or something? I know that since your-"

"Hunk, that's my dad! That's _my_ Father! He's alive! He's okay! And he's at home right now, waiting for me!"

Shiro didn't like the sound of that. Samuel Holt wasn't alive… he'd watched him die at the hands of the evil eleven years ago in that cabin… he'd dismembered his body, along with Matt's…

There was no way this was true… it had to be a trick.

"Pidge… that's not your father." Shiro said, knowing full and well that this might hurt Pidge… but he didn't care. He had to protect her.

Pidge looked hurt. She glared over at Shiro through her glasses, her eyes narrowed. "How would you know?! This is him, Shiro! I know it is! There's pictures of him _all_ over my house! I know what my father looks like!"

"It's not your father, Katie." Shiro said calmly, "It's the evil. They do this to you. Especially if you're fighting against it. They find your weakness and they exploit it so they can convert you into one of theirs and I'm not going to let that happen."

"Shiro! This is my-"

"Katie! _That_ is not your father!" Shiro told her sternly, "Your father is gone, Katie. I know he is. I was there! I saw what the evil did to him and I promise you, this is not him! Please, believe me!"

Pidge felt as if she might start crying at any moment. She then looked over at the other three, expecting them to back her up.

"Well? Guys! You… you have anything to say?!"

There was silence for a moment before Keith sighed, getting up and putting a hand on Pidge's shoulder.

"Pidge, I think we should believe Shiro."

"What?! No! Keith!" Pidge objected, pulling away from him, "It's my father! I know it is!"

"Pidge… maybe it's for the best…" Lance attempted to add in, "I mean, Shiro hasn't lied to us and… if he says your father's gone… I think we should believe him."

Pidge glared at them all, a horrified and betrayed look on her face, tears spilling from her eyes. It couldn't be… it wasn't true. She'd seen him! And she'd show them he was real… if it was the last thing she did.

Without a word, she turned and stomped out of the mobile home, slamming the door behind her as the four guys looked on, Hunk attempting to open the door and go after her before Shiro placed his good hand on his shoulder.

"Let her be alone for a few minutes, Hunk. It's probably the best thing for her."

Hunk then relaxed, knowing Shiro was right. He then went and sat down on the couch, which thankfully, had minimal blood on it.

Suddenly, the sound of a motor was heard outside, causing the group to sit up, instantly alert.

"What's that?" Keith asked, listening out for the sound. It then sounded like a car was speeding away, forcefully. He then looked over at Lance, whose eyes had gone wide.

"Aw… shit. Aw, man! Shit! Shit!" Lance cried, pushing past the others and flinging open the door, running outside, the others following close behind. He then looked to his right to see his car, _his_ blue corolla, speeding away from the trailer park and then, it had hit him.

"Oh, FUCK ME!" he shouted, kicking up dirt.

"What?! What happened?" Shiro asked, approaching him and looking on where the car had sped off to.

"My car, man! My fucking car!" Lance cried, "Pidge stole my goddamn car!"

It then hit Shiro what had happened. Matt had always been stubborn… now it turns out his sister was either more stubborn or just had wild ambition… or both. She had now committed grand theft auto… all because she wanted to see her "dad". Shiro then realized what he had to do.

"Guys, call your folks. Tell them you'll be late." He said, "We're going after Pidge and we're going right now."


	5. Chapter 5: Daddy's Little Girl

Allura was on her third cup of coffee.

Ever since the strange incident in the abandoned house that had resulted in Detective Williams getting chopped to bits by a ceiling fan, Allura had hardly slept. The man that had been in that house… something had been horribly wrong with him, there was no doubt… but… what was wrong with him? Had he contracted a strange disease? Had a mental breakdown? Ingested bath salts?

 _"_ _No…"_ thought Allura. People on bath salts didn't morph into demons… at least, not physically. As she sipped her coffee, she stared out the window before something made her jump.

"Something on your mind?"

Allura turned suddenly, gazing up from her booth at a slender, middle aged yet well rested, beautiful woman with long, brown hair, highlights of white running down and making her hair stand out. She was wearing a casual ladies suit, the buttons to her blazer unfastened and a few blouse buttons undone up by her cleavage. Allura guessed it was one of those business type women who used her gender and sexuality to get what she wanted, and she had no taste in that. But, still, the woman had spoken to her, prompting her to respond,

"Oh, no. Not really." Allura lied as the woman sat down opposite her.

"No, I can tell by your expression." The woman said, tilting her head quizzically, "You've seen something truly horrific, haven't you? Something that nobody ever dreams of seeing."

Allura sighed, looking over at woman. Why was it her business anyway? She didn't know her!

"Oh, I'm sorry. Forgot to introduce myself." The woman said, extending her hand to Allura, "I'm Hazel."

"Detective Allura Alfor." Allura told her.

"Ooh, detective. Nice." Hazel said, "I like a strong woman."

"Well, that's nice for you. Thank you." Allura told her in the most professional way possible.

"Care if I join you?" asked Hazel before sitting down in the booth opposite Allura, "Thank you. Oh, and I'll take a coffee. And go ahead and refill hers as well." She told the waitress as she passed by. Without a word, the waitress went on her way, prompting Hazel to look back at Allura, who seemed confused.

"Pardon me, but did I say you could join me?"

"Oh, I knew you wouldn't mind. After all, nobody wants to be alone after seeing something akin to what you saw just last night.

Allura froze.

"How do you-"

"I know a lot of things, detective. And I also know that, not too far from here, something else is happening. Something that is directly related to what you saw last night."

Allura gaped at her as the waitress brought them the coffee, Hazel thanking her as she began to mix sugar into her cup.

"How do you know about last night? Were you there?!"

"Relax, detective. I wasn't there, I assure you. But, it is quite a story. Your partner chopped to pieces by a ceiling fan? Truly horrific. As is what's happening right about now." Hazel told her as she sipped her piping hot coffee, not even flinching.

Allura stared at her for the longest time, Hazel not breaking eye contact as she gave her a sly grin. Suddenly, Allura jumped at the sound of her phone ringing. She then unclipped it from her belt and answered.

"Alfor."

"Alfor, there's been an incident at a nearby trailer park, behind the Big Deals department store."

Allura's heart skipped a beat as she looked over at Hazel, who was still smirking as if to say "I was right, now you owe me".

"What sort of incident?"

"You'll see when you get here. Just… come as soon as possible, all right?"

"All right. I'll be there soon."

She then hung up as Hazel finished the cup of coffee she had, a refreshing exhale escaping her throat.

"Ahhh, nothing like a good cup of coffee." She said, getting up and tossing some money down at the table.

"After you see what's happened, find me again. I believe that maybe I could help you out."

Hazel then turned to leave, Allura starting after her. She couldn't just leave like this!

"Wait!"

"Yes?"

"How can I find you again? You didn't give me a number or anything!" Allura pointed out.

"Oh, you'll find me. Or I'll find you, again. One way or the other. We'll find each other, Detective. Now, you run along. I'll see you soon."

Allura wanted to shudder as Hazel left the diner. She'd sworn that she'd never met someone some eerie… so unnerving. Did she know something? Or was that all just a coincidence?

Either way, Allura paid her bill and made her way down to the trailer park.

It was time to get to the bottom of this situation once and for all…

"Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"Yes, Keith, for the fife hundredth millionth time, we are going in the right direction!"

"That's not even a real number, Lance."

"You're not a real number, Keith!"

"Okay, _that_ doesn't make sense."

" _You_ don't make sense!"

"No offense, but will you two shut your mouths for _five minutes_?! These dirt roads are a pain in the ass!"

Shiro was doing his best to steer his Winnebago down the twisty, dirt roads that led to Pidge's home. He'd been there before, years ago with Matt and Samuel, Pidge's father, but honestly, he'd forgotten most of the way over the years. Plus, coming back here brought back some painful memories of Matt and Shiro was a little on edge because of that.

"Um… Shiro? You okay?" he heard Hunk ask. He looked over at the large boy, who had been sitting in the seat next to him for the duration of the ride while Lance and Keith tried to scrub the blood and brain matter out of the Winnebago's carpet.

"Yeah, Hunk. I'm all right." Shiro sighed, obviously lying. "It's just… coming back here brings so many memories of Matt back… before the whole cabin thing."

"Oh… yeah. I can't even imagine, man…"

"I used to come up here on weekends... we'd go camping, him and I. We'd roast marshmallows, get drunk, forget about the pressures of real life for a while..." Shiro explained, reminiscing a bit. He then sighed, looking out at the road.

"I would've never dreamed that I'd be the one to end his life." he muttered, chuckling a little. "I guess it's a little poetic. The one you love is the one that kills you because they want to stop you from having such a terrible fate... but, really, that's not how this was."

Hunk's eyes shifted nervously as he began ask something before Shiro cut him off.

"It was more like, 'kill or be killed'. I had to kill him before he killed me." he explained, "And besides, that thing that I killed was _not_ Matt. Not the Matt I knew. It was nothing but pure, concentrated evil. And if I hadn't done what I'd done, it would've killed me and most likely escaped and killed a whole lot more people."

"Whoa..." Hunk mumbled in awe, "Guess that makes you like... something like a hero then, huh?"

Shiro glanced over at him and gave a dry chuckle, looking back at the road. "Me? A hero? Nah... I'm no hero, Hunk." he said, turning onto another road, "I'm just a guy who got thrown into a very, very... weird situation."

"Well... you're a hero to us." Hunk said, giving Shiro a large, sweet smile, which made Shiro chuckle, this time more authentic.

"Thanks, Hunk. Now, will you get those two? We're nearly there."

As Hunk did what he'd asked, Shiro turned down the dirt road that led up to the Holt family's home, looking around for anything strange or abnormal. Within a few minutes, he'd parked the Winnebago and turned off the ignition, turning back to Hunk, Keith and Lance, taking the chainsaw and placing it on his wrist again.

"All right, look guys, chances are whatever's inside Katie's house pretending to be her father is a deadite in disguise, so it's gonna use every trick in the book to get you guys to show it mercy. Long story short: don't do it."

"Um, yeah, about that," Lance butted in, "Pidge isn't gonna be too happy if we run in there chopping at her dead, not-dead dad with a chainsaw. She'll probably flip her shit so... any plan to get around that?"

"Well, we can try and reason with her first and, if she still doesn't believe us... well, we'll just have to improvise." said Shiro.

"Um, another thing, what if he becomes all... deadite-y and comes at us? We don't have any weapons!" Lance pointed out.

"Sure we do." said Keith, taking the kitchen knife and giving the shotgun to Hunk, who looked as if he might be sick at the idea of a firearm in his hands.

"Um, what am I supposed to use?" Lance asked in irritation. Keith thought for a moment before handing him the skillet Pidge had used earlier.

"Here. Hope you've got a mad swing."

"Why can't I use the gun?! I'm clearly the best shot here! And Hunk looks like he's gonna pass out at the thought of even holding it!"

"Says the person who got thrown across the room from the kickback." Keith reminded him.

"I wasn't expecting it!" Lance argued, "Now, come on! Let me use it!"

"He's right, Keith." Shiro said, "If he's the best shot, let him use it. We'll need a good shot to get us through this."

"Ugh…" groaned Keith, Lance giving him a shit-eating-grin as he passed him the shotgun, which Lance gladly took, sticking his tongue out at Keith and blowing a raspberry.

"Oh yeah, real mature." Keith grumbled, rolling his eyes as Lance continued to smile, stroking the stock of the shotgun. "You really wanna give _him_ a firearm? And a powerful one at that?"

"Don't be such a crab!" Lance said, "I know how to work these! For example, I already know where the safety is and everything! And how to unload and load it. I'd like to see you try and do it, Keef."

"Call me 'Keef' again and I'll feed you to Pidge's undead father."

"Cool it, boys." Shiro called back to them as he stopped the Winnebago in front of Pidge's home, "And come on. We've got work to do."

Within a few minutes, the four of them were outside, knocking on Pidge's door, which was then answered by none other than Pidge herself, whose eyes immediately went wide when she saw that they were armed.

"Guys! What the hell?!"

"Hiya, Pidge." Shiro told her, waving with his chainsaw arm, "Mind if we come in?"

"You are not here to chop my dad's head off, Shiro." She said firmly, crossing her arms.

"No, no we're not. We're here to get rid of the deadite that's _pretending_ to be your dad. There's a difference." Shiro said, "May we come in?"

"Chainsaw off." Pidge told him, looking over at Lance, "And Lance? Who the fuck gave you a gun?"

"Hey! Mouth, young lady." Shiro said, pointing his chainsaw at her authoritatively before he realized what he was doing. His brow upturned in confusion, making him quickly switch hands.

"Shiro! I thought that was you!"

Shiro then looked past Pidge to see none other than the smiling face of Samuel Holt, her father. The man who had dies eleven years ago in a cabin in the woods, along with his son, Matthew. Looking healthier than ever.

"Holy shit." Shiro mumbled, suddenly feeling Pidge hit him in the chest.

"Hypocrite." She muttered as she went and joined her father, who looked over at the group, cordially inviting them in.

"Come in! Have a seat! We were just having dinner!"

"Ooh, yummy!" Lance said, rubbing his hands together expectantly, "And _who_ will we be eating tonight?"

He was then cut off by Pidge punching him hard in the arm as Hunk sniffed the air.

"Smells like meatloaf. And mashed potatoes. With gravy! Oh, and... carrots, too."

As he spoke, Keith raised an eyebrow, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Hunk, how the hell do you do that?"

"Dinner!" Pidge's mother called from the kitchen, bringing in a large platter of meatloaf as Samuel brought in the mashed potatoes, "Oh, hello! You must be Katie's... friends!" she said, taking notice of the blood that covered the four young men standing before her.

"Yes, ma'am! And we've come to save you from certain dea- ouch!" Lance yelped as Pidge whacked him in the sternum, making him cough, "Er... certain... depth. Is... what I said..."

"Here we go!" Samuel said, bringing in plates for everyone. Shiro raised an eyebrow as he offered him one.

"Sorry, but we're not hungry." Shiro said.

"Of course we are!" Hunk butted in, taking a plate for himself.

"Hunk, don't eat that." Shiro told him as he swiped the plate from him, looking over at Mrs. Holt. "Mrs. Holt, Katie, you stay away from it, too."

"Shiro..." growled Pidge.

"Why, why would I do that?" Mrs. Holt asked.

"Ugh... I guess I can't sugar coat this." Shiro groaned, "Your husband isn't who you think he is. Lance, pull up the video."

Lance then pulled up the video of Shiro dispatching of the old, possessed man.

"What... what is this?" Mrs. Holt asked, horrified.

"Nothing, mom! They were just leaving." Pidge said as she tried to push Shiro away.

"That's what your husband is going to turn into, Mrs. Holt."

"Shiro!" Pidge snapped, " _Shut the fuck up._ " she then added in a low toned voice.

"Pidge, it's true!" Shiro told her, "Your father died years ago! Right in front of me! I was there! I saw it myself! This is _not_ him!"

"You... you saw him die?" Pidge asked, but just as she had asked the question, a loud, shrill shriek came from her mother. Just like that, all five of them looked over to see Samuel Holt, now in his true, deadite form, white eyes and bared teeth, holding Pidge's mother by the hair.

" _Keep away! Her ass is mine, bitch!_ " Samuel shouted in a distorted voice as Shiro narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, I don't think so, jerk off." he muttered, pulling the cord to his chainsaw arm to life as he revved the engine. Samuel's arm then extended above Pidge's mother, his fingernails now long and pointed as a loud, curdling shriek erupted from his throat. Shiro cried out as he swung the chainsaw, chopping off Samuel's arm at the elbow, blood spraying the wall as the arm fell to the floor, earning loud groans from the other boys.

"Friggin' wicked!" Lance cried out.

"Disgusting!" shouted Hunk.

Lance then went over to examine the arm closer when suddenly, it sprang back to life, using it's fingers to run at him, Hunk and Keith as if it were some demented scorpion.

"Huh? Whoa-ahhh ahh! What the _fuck_ is this _fucking fuckery_?!" Lance cried out as he backed up into Hunk away from the crawling hand.

"WHAAAGHHH! AHH IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!" Hunk shouted in panic, pointing as Keith raised his knife.

"I've got this!"

Just as he said that, the arm shrieked and leaped forward, it's fingers closing around Keith's throat, earning another horrified scream from Hunk as Keith began choking.

"Hnnngggg...get... it... off me!" he cried out, stabbing the arm repeatedly with the knife as it laughed and shrieked, blood spraying from it's stab wounds, Shiro all the while wrestling with the one armed Samuel, flinging Pidge's mother away from them.

"Get her away from here, Pidge! Go!" Shiro shouted to her.

"Mom, come on! Quick!" Pidge yelled over the mayhem, leading her mother away.

"GAHHHHH SOMEONE DO SOMETHING, GODDAMMIT!" Keith shouted as the arm continued choking him, eventually pushing him into a wall, smacking his head against it as it let out long, high pitched giggles.

"LA-ANCE!" Keith shouted between thuds.

Lance gaped at him with the shotgun still in hand, "What?! What is it?!" he called back.

"U-USE THE FU-UCKING GU-UN YOU-U IDIOT!"

Lance gasped and looked down at the gun, quickly going over and beginning to fire as Hunk pushed the barrel away.

"NO!"

BLAM!

Before Lace knew it, he'd shotgun blasted a hole through the roof, Keith still being choked by the arm, now beginning to turn bright red.

"Hunk! What the hell, man?!"

"You're gonna blow his face off, dude!"

"No I'm not! Let me do this!" Lance assured him, pumping the gun again. "Oh, this is gonna be a real _blast._ "

He then aimed and shot the arm at the elbow, the limb then breaking in two, the fingers loosening from Keith's throat and the hand falling to the floor with a scream as Lance blew the fingers off with another blast.

"Hell yeah! Cold, hard boomstick up your ass, baby!" he shouted, pelvic thrusting the air in triumph. Across the room, Shiro was still wrestling with Samuel, who eventually threw him into the wall, quickly setting his sights on the boys.

"Oh boy, creepy demon dad, coming right for us!" Hunk cried.

"Aw, shit sticks, I'm out of shells!" Lance realized, "Well, that's it. We're toast."

"Oh, bullshit! You'd better club him in the head or some shit, ass wipe!" Keith snapped.

"Keith, we're about to be torn to shreds by a demon dude, could you _not_ call me names right now?!"

" _I'll swallow your filthy little souls!_ " howled Samuel.

"Okay, what's the deal with you things and swallowing shit?" Lance asked, "Maybe you can swallow a dick and choke on it!"

Samuel growled, pointing a long, crooked nail on his good hand at Lance, " _You first!_ "

As he made a grab from Lance, his head was quickly separated from his body, spinning off his torso and onto the floor. Before the boys knew it, they watched Shiro's chainsaw blade cut through Samuel's torso like it was the tough piece of turkey at a Thanksgiving dinner, blood spraying them once more as Shiro finished, the two halves of what used to be the demonic Samuel Holt falling to the floor as the boys looked at Shiro in awe.

"What? He turned his back." Shiro pointed out. "Thought it was about time he _split_."

The boys continued to stare, Keith raising an eyebrow, a look of disgust on his face, Hunk looking terrified and Lance immediately guffawing, doubling over from laughter.

"HA! You made a funny! Ha, ha, ha! Oh... oh my God. Yes. YES."

"All right, all right, calm it down, weirdo." Keith told him, grabbing his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

"Where's Pidge?" Shiro asked.

"We're here." Pidge's voice rang out as she stepped out of a bedroom, "I told my mother to stay in there. I figured she didn't want to see this."

"You're probably right." Shiro said, looking down at Samuel's body. "All right, we need to go bury this. That's the only way to make sure it stays dead. Dismember, and bury. Those are the rules, according to the book. So, come on. Let's get to work."

Across town in the trailer park, police sirens blared and investigators roamed the premises like vultures. Allura had made good time, meeting her commander there.

"Ah, Alfor. Good to see you." he said, "I have a case for you. Seems to match up with that one that cost you your partner."

"Sir?" Allura asked, "How do you know they're connected? For sure?"

"The victim here was found dismembered, his head separated from the rest of him, his eyes clouded white. Similar to the one who's head you blew off. What we found left of his head showed the same features. Leathered skin, white eyes, jagged teeth. That sort of thing."

"I see..." Allura said, looking over at the body, which was covered by a white sheet. "Do we have any leads?"

"We've done some asking around and, apparently, a mobile home that is usually parked here packed up and left earlier today and this man was found nearby."

"Any idea as to who owns the mobile home?"

"Haven't got a name so far, but I do have a description. Our sketch artist has been working on a rendering. We also managed to talk to a middle aged woman who lives across the way and said she saw four young kids, appear to be in their late teens, come to this very mobile home where our suspect is believed to live just a few minutes before the incident."

Allura thought that over, looking over at her supervisor, "Do you have the preliminary sketch?"

"Yes, here." he said, handing her a sketch of what appeared to be a Japanese man. "Our witness says he's around six feet tall, broad, muscled, built well. Has short black hair with the exception of a portion that leads to his bangs. That section is stark white. He has a large scar across the bridge of his nose and quote, 'Looks as if he wears eyeliner'. But, the most distinguishable part of him would be the fact that he only has one hand, the other one being made out of wood."

Allura thought for a few minutes as she looked down at the sketch. Sure, the man was handsome, but she couldn't let that distract her.

She had to find this man. Fast.

If this man was really responsible for what had happened in that house where Williams had been chopped to bits, Allura had to know. She had to find him.

She had to make him pay.


End file.
